


Tea (day 30-Storm)

by Only_Slightly_Obsessed (A_Stressed_Cupcake)



Series: Rémy's 2020 Multifandom Whumptober Works [30]
Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal
Genre: And a little fluff, Angst, Big Brothers, Gen, Haruto is mentioned because I love him, Kaito is very sweet in his own way, So are III and IV, They are so traumatised guys, This is literally just them talking, Trauma
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-30
Updated: 2020-10-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 18:35:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,306
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27291292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/A_Stressed_Cupcake/pseuds/Only_Slightly_Obsessed
Summary: There is simply no way to leave, at the moment. Not safely.______Whumptober day 30: Storm
Relationships: V | Chris Arclight & Tenjou Kaito
Series: Rémy's 2020 Multifandom Whumptober Works [30]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1965271
Comments: 5
Kudos: 10
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	Tea (day 30-Storm)

There is simply no way to leave, at the moment. Not safely.

_ The storm of the decade _ , someone called it, and it sounds quite accurate. There’s thunder that makes the windows shake, and lightning that flashes the light of a summer morning at 9pm on a winter day, and enough rain to make the windows practically unusable anyway, with all the streams of water running down them. 

So, to make a long story short, Chris has been forcibly invited over for dinner. 

And now, long  _ after _ dinner, he still can’t go home, which isn’t very pleasant, in all honesty, knowing how antsy Michael gets sometimes. It’s not his problem to deal with now, but the more he stays here, the more anxious his brother will get, the more he will annoy the rest of the family, the more people he will have to deal with when he does get back. He taps his finger on the cup in annoyance. Kaito takes a very long sip out of his, and an equally long stare, because that’s how he communicates. He just stares. It’s his way of asking what’s wrong, and it gets unnerving very quickly. 

Eventually, though, even Kaito has to speak up, because if there is one stubbornly silent person in the house at the moment, it’s not him.

The icebreaker he chooses could use some work, though.

“This tea is different.” he comments.

Chris sets his cup down, almost impressed at the awkwardness: “Yes. It is.”

“Do you always take it like this?”

“Like what?”

“With milk. This is odd.”

“That’s how you’re meant to drink it.” he sighs, “Of course, I always take it like this. Though I’m not usually the one who makes it…” he adds under his breath, noting that he should probably let it steep a little less next time.

Kaito sets his empty cup down: “It’s a little…”

“Too sweet for you.” he completes.

“How’d you know?”

“Because that’s usually how foreigners feel about it. Green tea’s a bit more bitter.”

“Ah.”

Chris takes a sip, only to pause halfway through: “I just used the word  _ foreigner  _ to refer to you.”

“You did.”

“And not myself.”

“Yes.”

“Mh.” he shifts uncomfortably, setting the cup down as an excuse to move, “Apologies.”

Kaito doesn’t answer him beyond a dismissive nod. It’s good enough.

He is, however, the one who starts the conversation again a few minutes later.

“Have you ever been there?” he asks, “Britain, I mean.”

Chris nods quietly: “Once, or twice. I only remember the last time clearly, though. I think it was the last trip we all took together. I was…” he pauses, “Ten years old, I believe. Thomas was six. Michael was four. And he was terribly ill, just as soon as he arrived.”

Kaito nods sympathetically.

“It was bad.” he continues, unsure of what is pushing him to talk about it for so long, “Very bad. One of those childhood illnesses, you know. It meant, also, that we weren’t allowed to see him.  _ Especially _ Thomas. I think you can guess who was also especially angry about that.”

“Also Thomas.”

“Yes. It was meant to be a birthday trip for him, you know? And, because that’s how children are, he was… a little too cruel about that. He didn’t quite grasp how bad it was and he wasn’t any kinder to Michael because of that. From where he stood, everyone was just suddenly paying attention to the little one again. It’s natural for older siblings to be jealous when they’re children, but it was just upsetting to see. Michael recovered from the illness in a matter of days, but I don't think he ever recovered from what Thomas told him. When father scolded him for it, when he told him that he shouldn’t behave like that towards someone he loves, he said he would die before he ever said  _ I love you _ to someone.”

A long pause.

“He kept that promise.” he murmurs, covering the twist of his lip by bringing the cup up again, “Ten years, he never said anything of the sort. To any of us. He did say it, almost by accident, after we came back from… well. When we went to find him again. So I suppose, he really did die before he ever said  _ I love you _ .”

Silence falls on them, heavier than before, as memories that were locked beyond a gate break their confinement and flood their minds, and the river of words is suddenly harder to contain.

“We’re trying.” says Kaito, quietly, “So hard. To be a half normal family. And I had to tell myself, so many times, that it was fine if we weren’t there yet. But  _ yet _ is becoming too long.”

Chris nods at him to continue.

“It’ll be difficult, I think. I tucked Haruto in early today, with all the blinds shut and noise cancelling headphones on. He never used to be afraid of storms, you know? As a child. Me, I hated them when I was his age. And while I was doing my best to stay still when there was a crack of thunder, he just sat there playing like before. But he doesn’t look at the sky anymore. At night, we have to lock everything up because he doesn’t want to see the moon. Lightning frightens him, because it looks like his powers. Thunder scares him because it’s too loud. And God forbid I leave my bed in the morning before he comes to check on me.”

Chris shifts, guilty: “I understand that.”

“Mh?”

“I…” he sighs, “I patrol the house at least twice every night, every time I wake up. Worse, Thomas has yet to tell me to knock it off. I’m almost certain he does the same thing sometimes.”

Kaito fidgets, looking at the blurred sky outside: “Sometimes, when I dream, I stop breathing. It’s never caused real problems, and the only reason I know this is that my father has me hooked up on a vitals monitor all the time. More than before, in fact.”

“I think your moon stunt scared just about everybody.” Chris points out, “It would have scared me, if I’d been-”

“Yeah.”

It’s less than five seconds before he has the urge to speak up again: “Michael should technically be in the third year, in terms of age.” he starts, “I was going to enroll him there, too. But he wanted to be in the same class as Yuma. Or so he said. I don’t think he was telling me the whole truth. I’ve seen his face when he has to be in the same room as-”

“Oh.”

“Yeah.”

“I’m… not as uncomfortable around him anymore.” shrugs Kaito, “But then, he didn’t kill me.”

“He certainly did his best, for a while.” comments Chris, dryly. 

It seems to amuse Kaito, just a little: “In all fairness, I’m friends with half the people I tried to kill.”

“Mh. You have a point.”

A particularly loud crack of thunder makes them both jump in their seats. 

The rain, though, seems to be waning a bit, and the timing compared to the corresponding lightning suggests that the storm is moving away.

“It looks like I won’t have to bother you for much longer.” mumbles Chris, setting his half empty cup down.

Kaito gives him a strange, almost worried look: “You never bother me.”

It’s disarmingly sincere on his part.

“Not anymore.”

“The point stands.”

He can’t find a lie in his eyes. 

Chris sighs: “Well. If that’s the case, I’ll be back to  _ not  _ bother you tomorrow morning, after I talk my family out of putting a tracker on me.”

“Didn’t you put a tracker on Thomas?”

“That is irrelevant and Thomas is a special case. I’ll be back tomorrow.”

“I’ll see you then.”

“Good night.”

“Good night, Chris.”

**Author's Note:**

> Traumatised big brothers squad anyone? I'm sad :,)  
> This ENTIRE one shot was created after I thought of the "he died before he ever said i love you" line, fyi. I'm sad #2  
> You cannot tell me everyone in this show isn't horribly traumatised. Honestly, if anyone wanted to read them, I could write a whole series of post canon one shots that are just characters talking things out :,)
> 
> Let me know.
> 
> -Rémy


End file.
